Fabio Aru (Astana) was too far back in the field on the short, unranked climb to the finish line, and lost time, handing the yellow jersey back to Chris Froome (Sky). The British rider now leads by 19 seconds over Aru and 23 seconds over Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale).

It was Sunweb's second consecutive stage win after Warren Barguil's stage 13 triumph, and Matthews' second career Tour de France stage win.

The race was marked early by a five man breakaway, with Thomas De Gendt the last rider caught with about 12km to go. Another small group formed near the end, but they were swept up as the Classics riders' teams powered their way up the steep 600 meters to the finish line.

Van Avermaet moved into the lead, preparing to repeat his 2015 success here, while John Degenkolb (Trek Segafredo) pulled on the left before suddenly losing power. Matthews had been on Van Avermaets' wheel and came around him ahead of the line.

Matthews and Van Avermaet were given the same time, and a high powered group finished only one second behind them, with not only Boasson Hagen but also Philippe Gilbert, Froome and Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac).

"I think last time we finished here two years ago, I had four broken ribs and skin off all over my body, and it was one of the stages I was really targeting before I crashed," Matthews said after the finish. "Now, to come back on the same finish and to win like that, it's really a dream come true.

"We rode all day, and when we kept the breakaway so close, I knew it was going to be hard to have a lot of teammates in the final, because we had to ride quite hard to bring De Gendt back.

One day after Froome seemed vulnerable on the short, fast stage in the Pyrenees, he returned to a position of dominance, positioned perfectly in the run-in while Aru floundered well behind.

Froome said getting back into the maillot jaune was a "very nice surprise".

"I never thought I'd get the jersey back on a stage like today," Froome said. "Thanks to my teammates for keeping me in front, Kwiatkowski did a great job. The team always stayed very close front, and taking 20 seconds is enormous, it's the same as Peyragudes. Every seconds counts. It's a fight for every second this year."

How it unfolded

Once again there was a breakaway from the very start in Blagnac and once again it was initiated by Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie), whose opening salvo was less successful on Friday. This time the Frenchman was joined by Maxime Bouet (Team Fortuneo-Oscaro), Timo Roosen (LottoNL-Jumbo), and fellow breakaway veteran Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), and their move stuck.

About 4km later they had 1:25 on the field and Reto Hollenstein (Katusha-Alpecin) made the late decision to join the group. It took him a while, and the lead group waited for him to join up.

De Gendt was a good threat to take the stage win if the group stayed away, so the peloton was watchful not to let that happen. The gap never hit the three-minute mark, usually staying closer to two minutes.

With 125km to go, the day's intermediate sprint beckoned. De Gendt outsprinted Bouet to take the maximum points. There was more action some two minutes later when the peloton crossed over. Quick-Step Floors started lining up early, with Michael Matthews (Sunweb) on Kittel's wheel. The German finishing just ahead of the Australian to add to his tally in the green jersey competition.

The finale today was one for the Classics riders, and it was easy to see who had their eye on the big prize. Greg Van Avermaet, who won here two years ago, had the support of his BMC teammates, and they shared the work with Sunweb, riding for Matthews. Bahrain-Merida thought Sonny Colbrelli had a chance and they too lingered near the front.

The gap hovered just under the two-minute mark with 50km left as the parcours hit the rolling terrain outside of Rodez. The first ranked climb of the day was the category 3 Cote du Viaduc du Vlaur. Roosen punctured on the ascent but made his way safely back to the front group. De Gendt claimed the points at the top, ahead of Voeckler.

The second climb, the category 3 Cote de Centres came not long after, and Roosen's chase cost him. He fought his way past Bouet as the Frenchman was dropped, but soon fell off the pace, too. Hollenstein was next to pay the toll for his efforts. De Gendt took the mountain points ahead of Voeckler again.

Further back, Kittel was already struggling and was caught out behind the field. Teammate Fabio Sabatini joined him to keep him from falling too far behind, and in time a small grupetto formed.

De Gendt had his eye on his second career Tour stage win and soon dropped Voeckler. With 20km to go, he had 59 seconds in hand. An unranked climb with less than 15km did De Gendt in, with his lead shrinking constantly. With 12.5km left, he was overtaken by the field.

World time trial champion Tony Martin (Katusha) jumped to the front and built up a few meters lead with Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal) before Sunweb pulled him in, too. Maurits Lammertink was the next Katusha rider to go, with BMC's Damiano Caruso right behind him. Nikias Arndt of Sunweb jumped to join them, as did Fortuneo-Oscar's Pierre Luc Perichon.

Sunweb and BMC were happy to let them go, and stopped their lead work, with Sky jumping in to take over at the front of the small peloton. The four leaders had only a small gap on the field but seemed determined to stay away, with Perichon particularly active.

Lammertink survived as the other three faded, but he too was soon gobbled up. Quick-Step led the charge on the technical, curving, high-speed finale.

AG2R La Mondiale's Oliver Naesen led the way up the final vicious climb. But he was soon swallowed up by the top class classics stars. Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) and Van Avermaet led the way up the climb, as Degenkolb tried but faded on the far right. Matthews came up from behind the Belgians to charge to the clear win.

The grupetto with not only Kittel but numerous other sprinters came in 13:17 down, well within the day’s time limit.

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